A Comparison of Self-Administered Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation To Static Stretching On Range of Motion and Flexibility

Please view abstract in the attached PDF file

EP-1504: Stability of gold marker position during IGRT of prostate cancer

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A cross-discipline approach to healthcare needs

With rapid advancements in technology and growing demand for better healthcare, hospitals are struggling to find a balance between providing the best possible care and maintaining a responsible budget. This issue is especially evident in small hospitals lacking resources and infrastructure to keep up with modern technology. The Engineering for Modern Healthcare Creative Inquiry is a collaboration between Industrial Engineering and Bioengineering students. Our goal is to help small hospitals to develop efficient, cost-effective solutions to their needs. Currently, we are working with hospitals in South Carolina and Virginia to explore these solutions. We are interviewing clinicians, nurses, and other staff members to better understand current practices and identify improvement opportunities. Our initial focus will be on inventory management and sterile processing. Utilizing both departments\u27 expertise, we will develop a comprehensive solution to this complicated need

Tuning gastropod locomotion: Modeling the influence of mucus rheology on the cost of crawling

Common gastropods such as snails crawl on a solid substrate by propagating muscular waves of shear stress on a viscoelastic mucus. Producing the mucus accounts for the largest component in the gastropod's energy budget, more than twenty times the amount of mechanical work used in crawling. Using a simple mechanical model, we show that the shear-thinning properties of the mucus favor a decrease in the amount of mucus necessary for crawling, thereby decreasing the overall energetic cost of locomotion.Comment: Corrected typo

Clay mineral formation under oxidized conditions and implications for paleoenvironments and organic preservation on Mars

Clay mineral-bearing locations have been targeted for martian exploration as potentially habitable environments and as possible repositories for the preservation of organic matter. Although organic matter has been detected at Gale Crater, Mars, its concentrations are lower than expected from meteoritic and indigenous igneous and hydrothermal reduced carbon. We conducted synthesis experiments motivated by the hypothesis that some clay mineral formation may have occurred under oxidized conditions conducive to the destruction of organics. Previous work has suggested that anoxic and/or reducing conditions are needed to synthesize the Fe-rich clay mineral nontronite at low temperatures. In contrast, our experiments demonstrated the rapid formation of Fe-rich clay minerals of variable crystallinity from aqueous Fe^(3+) with small amounts of aqueous Mg^(2+). Our results suggest that Fe-rich clay minerals such as nontronite can form rapidly under oxidized conditions, which could help explain low concentrations of organics within some smectite-containing rocks or sediments on Mars

Saponite Dissolution Experiments and Implications for Mars

Recent work suggests that the mineralogical sequence of the Murray formation at Gale crater may have resulted from diagenetic alteration after sedimentation, or deposition in a stratified lake with oxic surface and anoxic bottom waters. Fe-containing clay minerals are common both at Gale crater, and throughout the Noachian-aged terrains on Mars. These clay minerals are primarily ferric (Fe3+), and previous work suggests that these ferric clay minerals may result from alteration of ferrous (Fe2+) smectites that were oxidized after deposition. The detection of trioctahedral smectites at Gale crater by CheMin suggests Fe2+ smectite was also deposited during the early Hesperian. However, due to their sensitivity to oxygen, Fe2+ smectites are difficult to analyze on Earth and very few saponite dissolution rates exist in the literature. To the best of our knowledge, no experiments have measured the dissolution rates of ferrous saponites under oxidizing and reducing conditions. In order to better understand the characteristics of water-rock interaction at Gale crater, particularly the oxidation state, we report our results to date on ongoing syntheses of ferrous and magnesium saponites and dissolution experiments of natural saponite under ambient conditions. Future experiments will include the dissolution of synthetic ferric, ferrous, and magnesium saponites under oxidizing and anoxic conditions at a range of pH values

Designing medical technology for developing countries

Resource-poor countries have markedly different healthcare systems. Many developed nations donate medical supplies to these countries, but this often does not meet the needs of the recipients. Our goal is to develop simple healthcare solutions that can be produced in-country so the developing area does not depend on outside sources for its supplies. Our group works on many projects, including sustainable woven grass neck braces and a variety of low-cost sensors. Our designs do not require frequent donations, minimize the use of consumables, and provide better detection and/or treatment of prevalent medical concerns. Our baby monitor will detect skin temperature and control a heating element based on the needs of the infant. Our low-cost glucometer operates with the use of test strips that can be printed for a penny with a standard inkjet printer. This will allow the hospital or clinic to print the strips themselves rather than depend on donated strips. Our bacterial sensor will measure resistance to quickly detect the quantity of bacteria in a sample. We seek sustainable solutions for in-house manufacturing to advance more self-sufficient healthcare systems

Production of π0 and η mesons in Cu+Au collisions at sNN =200 GeV

Production of π0 and η mesons has been measured at midrapidity in Cu+Au collisions at sNN=200GeV. Measurements were performed in π0(η)→γγ decay channel in the 1(2)-20GeV/c transverse momentum range. A strong suppression is observed for π0 and η meson production at high transverse momentum in central Cu+Au collisions relative to the p+p results scaled by the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. In central collisions the suppression is similar to Au+Au with comparable nuclear overlap. The η/π0 ratio measured as a function of transverse momentum is consistent with mT-scaling parametrization down to pT=2GeV/c, its asymptotic value is constant and consistent with Au+Au and p+p and does not show any significant dependence on collision centrality. Similar results were obtained in hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus, and nucleus-nucleus collisions as well as in e+e- collisions in a range of collision energies sNN=3-1800 GeV. This suggests that the quark-gluon-plasma medium produced in Cu+Cu collisions either does not affect the jet fragmentation into light mesons or it affects the π0 and η the same way

J/psi suppression at forward rapidity in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=39 and 62.4 GeV

We present measurements of the J/psi invariant yields in sqrt(s_NN)=39 and 62.4 GeV Au+Au collisions at forward rapidity (1.2<|y|<2.2). Invariant yields are presented as a function of both collision centrality and transverse momentum. Nuclear modifications are obtained for central relative to peripheral Au+Au collisions (R_CP) and for various centrality selections in Au+Au relative to scaled p+p cross sections obtained from other measurements (R_AA). The observed suppression patterns at 39 and 62.4 GeV are quite similar to those previously measured at 200 GeV. This similar suppression presents a challenge to theoretical models that contain various competing mechanisms with different energy dependencies, some of which cause suppression and others enhancement.Comment: 365 authors, 10 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Phys. Rev. C. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm